Giants vs Giant Killers: India vs Ireland Preview

Cricket fans of Bangalore must have thought that they should have got some stronger team than Ireland to play India at the Chinnaswamy stadium but now they must be happy that it is India vs Ireland in the Garden City. Suddenly the match has become an interesting one. That is not just because the match between India and England ended in a tie but also because the way Ireland won their last match vs England at the very same venue at Bangalore.

Ireland will be coming into this match after beating England handsomely while India is coming into the match after playing a tied game which they should have gone on to win. Chasing 339, England scored 338 to tie the game while Ireland vs England chased down the score of 329 and won the match, thanks to Kevin O’Brein’s brilliant century. So there is no doubt today as well, the wicket is going to be a batsmen’s paradise. So the team will have to make the composition accordingly.

Will Kevin O'Brien torment India like he did England?

India certainly have the strongest batting lineup in this tournament. So they will have to worry more about the bowling. Piyush Chawla went for quite a few runs in last match. He bowled 10 overs and took 2 wickets but conceded 71 runs. I think there is nothing wrong in gong with 2 spinners but if you have someone like Yuvraj Singh in the team who can bowl good left arm spin you can afford to go with 3 fast bowlers.Nehra is still not match fit. So India can go with Sreesanth with Zaheer and Munaf. If the team wants to go with spin they should go with R Ashwin who is an excellent bowler. So the Indian team can be like this:

Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar,Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh,MS Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Ashwin/S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel.

Ireland would be hoping that Andre Botha gets fit before the match. Andre Botha is a very good bowler and can bowl few tidy overs in the depth. If he is fit he will surely play today’s match. And if he is not fit Ireland would not like to make any change in the winning combination. They would expect Kevin O’Brein to continue his good form and Captain William Porterfield to give them a solid start. So the Ireland team may look like this:

William Porterfield, Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce, Niall O’Brein, Kevin O’Brein, Alex Cusack, Andre Botha/Gary Wilson, John Mooney, Trent Johnston, George Dockrell, and Boyd Rankin.

The match will be played on the pitch on which India vs England was played. So there is no doubt that it can be a high scoring game. The ideal decision for the team winning the toss will be to bat first because there will hardly be any change in the wicket. So on a track which is good to bat on, it is good to know that how many runs you need to score. All eyes will be on Kevin O’Brein after he scored the fastest WC Century in the last game. Indians would be hoping a good start from Sachin and Sehwag and expect fireworks down the order from Yusuf Pathan.

India and Ireland have played each other only once in which India won the match quite convincingly. But Ireland can be dangerous and India will have to take them more seriously than before and will have to be careful.